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Report on the Global South Encounter in Singapore (April 19-23) |
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The 4th Global South Encounter (GSE4) began in Singapore this morning and some are anticipating the conference has the potential to define and secure a future for biblically faithful Anglicanism.
Almost immediately, an issue being addressed is the Anglican Covenant, a document proposed to assist in the reform of the Anglican Communion. Outgoing Global South chairman, Archbishop Peter Akinola (Nigeria, retired), in his address to the gathering, expressed views at odds with those espoused by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.
This morning, the gathering listened to a video address from Dr Williams in which he said that the premise of the Covenant “sets out a path for the kind of obedience to one another that the New Testament proposes for us”. However, in his opening sermon, Archbishop Akinola, said that in Scripture, the nature of a covenant demands obedience, not to one another, but to the covenant itself. “…A covenant requires absolute loyal commitment and faithful adherence to its terms and conditions...”
Conversation at the New Wineskins conference last week regarding the possibility of revising the current version of the Covenant to include more detail about discipline seems to have been preemptively shut down by Lambeth Palace. In his video address, Dr. Williams implies that the Covenant is not open for further revision when he says, “The text of the [Anglican] Covenant is a whole”.
Dr Williams hopes that the Global South leaders will see things his way:
So one of my prayers for your meeting in these days is that you will discover something about that mutual obedience, the covenant with one another that comes out of our grateful acceptance of the covenant God makes with us in the blood of Jesus Christ.
Archbishop Akinola expressed his hope and vision clearly:
Like my brother John (Chew) reminded us this morning at a meeting of the Primates this is no time for rhetoric but for action and my hope is that at this Encounter we will not just issue a statement… but what we say from this Encounter will have such power that it will impact positively, not only on our Church, but on the entire human race.
StandFirmInFaith reports that the Archbishop of Canterbury’s address in which he remonstrates that “there are no quick solutions for the wounds of the Body of Christ”, was not well received. The full text of his address is posted to his website.
Please pray throughout this week for Global South Encounter.
You can find further information on this potentially pivotal event as follows:
The Global South Anglican website has all the key addresses to date as well as the agenda
AnglicanTV is in Singapore and will do some live webcasts as well as post key session (Check under “Episodes” as well as under “Live Stream”)
A full list of those in attendance from AnglicansUnited – April 19 2010 – Singapore: Those in attendance
Here is an interesting article on the event with an overview of the address by the new Primate of Nigeria – Archbishop Nicholas Okoh – with an extract:
Christian News – April 20 2010 – Southern Anglican leaders open fourth meeting in distress
Archbishop Okoh… emphasised the ‘absolute’ necessity for economic empowerment in the Global South… [and] cited the danger of wealthier members buying the loyalty and compromise of poorer ones. Okoh also warned of the adoption of another Gospel out of fear, an action he called ‘treachery’… “To deny these fundamentals is to abandon the way; it is apostasy; it is ‘another Gospel’, which is condemned in Scripture,” he said.
Here are two interesting summaries of the speech given by Archbishop Mouneer Anis (Jerusalem and the Middle East) with extracts:
VirtueOnline – April 20 2010 – Singapore: Middle East Archbishop Calls for New Anglican Communion
In a groundbreaking speech to some 130 delegates to the Fourth Global South to South Encounter, the Archbishop of the Middle East said that the Anglican Communion is dysfunctional, at war with itself and that a new structure is needed for a new communion… He blasted the North American Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada saying that a new structure is necessary to compensate for the ongoing "ecclesial deficit" in the communion…[He said,] "We need a new structure to face the challenges together. We do not want to create another communion. [The North American provinces] have departed the faith. They have left us; we have not left the faith of the communion. They have made the Anglican Communion dysfunctional. We need to move forward now and not just be reactive… We should spend our time bringing the Good News to the world, discipling and baptizing people for Christ."
AnglicansUnited – April 20 2010 – Abp Mouneer Anis and the Holy Bread
Let me say this clearly. We do not need another Communion. WE are the Communion. Others may wish to form a new communion. That is not our desire. We are not to compete with the current dysfunctional structure of the Anglican Communion, but find a way forward at the current time. It is time to stop reacting and get on with the important job of Christ’s mission that we have been given.
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